Our piano teacher has been working with Alex on "composition". What this looks like for a 10-year-old who's only taken a handful of lessons is this: Gabriel (the teacher) encourages Alex to improvise on a predetermined set of keys for a bit while he accompanies him on the guitar, using two simple notes, back and forth (in this case, F# and B). Then, after a while, he tells Alex that they are going to write a song, a piece about a thunderstorm. It's going to have three parts.
"How could it be, the first part?" Gabriel (whose first language is Spanish) inquires, and encourages Alex to think about ideas, and play around with a few notes.
Alex moves to the lower register, and begins experimenting with different notes and rhythms.
"Find something you like?" asks Gabriel, after a few minutes.
"I think so", responds Alex, and begins playing a series of "rumbling notes", as he calls them, down near the left-hand side of the keyboard. "Thunder and Lightening", he explains.
"Good!" says Gabriel, and after they play it together (he accompanies Alex on the guitar again), he asks Alex to move the storm up an octave, "from the country to the city", which Alex cheerfully agrees to do, subsequently adding a third octave on his own accord ("a different country").
Then, it's time to compose the second part. I captured Alex's thinking and explaining in the first video, below. You have to turn up the volume to hear him talking, but he tells about how there are two friends, and they are very sad when they come out and see it is raining. The notes he chooses portray this sadness.
In the second video, Alex and Gabriel play the first and second parts of the composition together.
"How could it be, the first part?" Gabriel (whose first language is Spanish) inquires, and encourages Alex to think about ideas, and play around with a few notes.
Alex moves to the lower register, and begins experimenting with different notes and rhythms.
"Find something you like?" asks Gabriel, after a few minutes.
"I think so", responds Alex, and begins playing a series of "rumbling notes", as he calls them, down near the left-hand side of the keyboard. "Thunder and Lightening", he explains.
"Good!" says Gabriel, and after they play it together (he accompanies Alex on the guitar again), he asks Alex to move the storm up an octave, "from the country to the city", which Alex cheerfully agrees to do, subsequently adding a third octave on his own accord ("a different country").
Then, it's time to compose the second part. I captured Alex's thinking and explaining in the first video, below. You have to turn up the volume to hear him talking, but he tells about how there are two friends, and they are very sad when they come out and see it is raining. The notes he chooses portray this sadness.
In the second video, Alex and Gabriel play the first and second parts of the composition together.
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Afterwards, Gabriel announces "and now the sun comes out", asking Alex, "what could this sound like?"
Alex decides to experiment with some chords this time, playing several notes simultaneously, and indeed, it sounds much "happier". Alas, by now I am sitting back down again in my chair, reading a Ministry of Ed monograph about inquiry, so I do not catch that part on video.
It's quite inspiring to watch how focused Alex is when he "composes", and how uninhibited.
It's beautiful to see him discovering the joy of music!
Alex decides to experiment with some chords this time, playing several notes simultaneously, and indeed, it sounds much "happier". Alas, by now I am sitting back down again in my chair, reading a Ministry of Ed monograph about inquiry, so I do not catch that part on video.
It's quite inspiring to watch how focused Alex is when he "composes", and how uninhibited.
It's beautiful to see him discovering the joy of music!